Aristotle MetaphysicsMetaphysics of One Substance & its Properties

Summary & History of the Metaphysics of Aristotle, Quotes & Pictures
Uniting Space, Time, Matter & Motion with the Wave Structure of Matter

The
first philosophy (Metaphysics) is universal and is exclusively concerned
with primary substance. ... And here we will have the science to study that
which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing
that is, it has. (Aristotle, 340BC)

It is clear, then, that wisdom is knowledge having to do with certain principles and causes. But now, since it is this knowledge that we are seeking, we must consider the following point: of what kind of principles and of what kind of causes is wisdom the knowledge? (Aristotle, Metaphysics, 340BC)

The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. And to seek for this is to seek for the second kind of principle, that from which comes the beginning of the change. (Aristotle,340BC)

There
must then be a principle of such a kind that its substance is activity.
... it is impossible that the primary existent, being eternal, should be destroyed.
... that among entities there must be some cause which moves and combines things.
... about its coming into being and its doings and about all its alterations we think that we have knowledge when we know the source of its movement. (Aristotle, Metaphysics, 340BC)

Introduction

Aristotle was the first philosopher to formalise
the subject of Metaphysics. As Aristotle explains, Metaphysics
is the study of the One Substance (and its Properties) which exists and
causes / connects all things, and is therefore the necessary foundation
for all human knowledge. Aristotle (and Leibniz) were correct to realize
that One Substance must have Properties that cause matter's interconnected
activity and motion. As Aristotle wrote;

"Since nature is a principle of motion
and change, and since our inquiry is about nature, we must not overlook
the question of what motion is. For without understanding motion, we could
not understand nature." (Aristotle)

Though Aristotle did not know what existed, he explained the
method such that we could determine this ourselves. Thus Aristotle's ideas
are very important, for within them are the clues to the solution of this
most profound of all problems, 'what exists', and thus what it means to
be 'human'.
Ancient Greek Philosophy, of which Aristotle was the high point, marked
a fundamental turning point in the evolution of humanity and our ideas about
our existence in the universe. Over the past 2,500 years Aristotle's philosophy
has directly contributed to the evolution of our current science / reason
based society. Thus it is unfortunate that many people imagine our post-modern
society to now be so 'enlightened' that Aristotle (and other Ancient Greek
Philosophers) have become irrelevant. In fact the opposite is true. As Bertrand
Russell observed (History of Western Philosophy), it was the Ancient Greek
Philosophers who first discovered and discussed the fundamental Principles
of Philosophy, Physics and Metaphysics, and most significantly, little has
been added to their knowledge since. As Einstein wrote;

Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous. There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) that the people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millennium. Nothing is more needed to overcome the modernist's snobbishness. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

It is therefore both interesting and important to consider the foundations which caused the blossoming of Ancient Greek Philosophy. First and foremost was the realisation that ALL IS ONE, as Nietzsche writes;

Greek philosophy seems to begin with a preposterous fancy, with the proposition that water is the origin and mother-womb of all things. Is it really necessary to stop there and become serious? Yes, and for three reasons: firstly, because the preposition does enunciate something about the origin of things; secondly, because it does so without figure and fable; thirdly and lastly, because it contained, although only in the chrysalis state, the idea :everything is one. ... That which drove him (Thales) to this generalization was a metaphysical dogma, which had its origin in a mystic intuition and which together with the ever renewed endeavors to express it better, we find in all philosophies- the proposition: everything is one! (Friedrich Nietzsche, The Greeks)

Further, Aristotle realised that Motion (Flux / Activity / Change) was central to existence and reality, as he writes;

The first philosophy (Metaphysics) is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. ... And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing that is, it has. (Aristotle, 340BC)
The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. And to seek for this is to seek for the second kind of principle, that from which comes the beginning of the change. (Aristotle, 340BC)

Only recently (Wolff, 1986, Haselhurst, 1997, and others - see WSM Group) has it been possible, with the discovery of the Metaphysics of Space and Motion and the Wave Structure of Matter (WSM), to simply unite these ideas with modern Physics, Philosophy and Metaphysics.
It is also ironic that the main problem for human knowledge also came from the Ancient Greeks, with their conception of matter as discrete Atoms (Democritus, Lucretius). Unfortunately, Physics took the path of the atomists (Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Lorentz) and this led to the creation of 'Force Fields' (generated by particles) to explain how matter interacted with other discrete matter at-a-distance in Space.

Summary of the Metaphysics of Aristotle

The first philosophy (Metaphysics) is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. ... And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing that is, it has. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

At the heart of Metaphysics is Substance and its Properties, which exists and causes all things, and is therefore the necessary foundation for all human knowledge. Aristotle and Leibniz were correct to realize that One Substance must have Properties that account for matter's interconnected activity and Motion.

The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things
that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. And to
seek for this is to seek for the second kind of principle, that from which
comes the beginning of the change. & There must then be a principle
of such a kind that its substance is activity. (Aristotle,
Metaphysics)

Since nature is a principle of motion and change,
and since our inquiry is about nature, we must not overlook the question
of what motion is. For without understanding motion, we could not understand
nature. (Aristotle)

I maintain also that substances, whether material or
immaterial, cannot be conceived in their bare essence without any activity,
activity being of the essence of substance in general. (Leibniz,
1670)

The solution is to realize that Space exists as a wave-medium
and contains spherical wave-motions that cause matter and its interconnected
activity/change (what we call time).
With this in mind let us now consider some quotes from Aristotle on Metaphysics.

It is clear, then, that wisdom is knowledge having to do with certain principles and causes. But now, since it is this knowledge that we are seeking, we must consider the following point: of what kind of principles and of what kind of causes is wisdom the knowledge? (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of unprovable starting-points (concepts and truth) and demonstrative knowledge of what follows from them. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Demonstration is also something necessary, because a demonstration cannot go otherwise than it does, ... And the cause of this lies with the primary premises/principles. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

For those who wish to make good progress must start well; for subsequent progress depends on the resolution of the first puzzles, and one cannot solve these without knowing the difficulty and the confusion of our minds. So we must first set out all the difficulties, both for these reasons and also because those who inquire without first setting out the difficulties are like those who do not know in which direction they should walk, and in addition do not even know whether they would recognize that which they are looking for. For the end is not clear to these, but it is for those who have begun with the puzzles. And also from the point of view of judging that man is better off who has heard, as it were, all the rival and opposed positions. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

..it is impossible that the primary existent, being eternal, should be destroyed.
.. that among entities there must be some cause which moves and combines things.
..about its coming into being and its doings and about all its alterations we think that we have knowledge when we know the source of its movement. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

While Aristotle did not know what existed, he explained to us the method so that we could work this out. Thus Aristotle's words and ideas are very important, for within them are the clues to the solution of this problem of 'what exists'.

Some philosophers have fallen into this opinion in the same way that they have into other paradoxes. They are confronted by an esoteric argument, find it impossible to refute and end up by giving in to it and accepting its conclusion! This explains the confusion of some, ... the basis of the cure is definition. Now a definition arises from the necessity that words have some meaning; for the definition is the account of which the word is the sign. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
Rather, they start this, displaying it to the senses, .... and go on to offer more or less rigorous demonstrations of the per se attributes of their proprietary genera. This sort of procedure is inductive and it is as plain as a pikestaff that it does not amount to a demonstration of essence or of what it is to be a thing. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
..a science must deal with a subject and its properties. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
.... the science we are after is not about mathematicals either (none of them, you see, is separable). (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
But also philosophy is not about perceptible substances (they, you see, are prone to destruction) (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
However, there is a science higher than natural science. For in truth nature is but one genus of that which is. It is a science whose subject matter is universal and which is exclusively concerned with primary substance. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
It is the principles and causes of the things that are that we are seeking, and clearly it is their principles and causes just as things that are.... It is, however, vital not to overlook the question of what it is to be a thing and the definitional account of how it is what it is. If we leave these out, scientific inquiry is mere shadow boxing.... the science of it is First Philosophy - and such a science is universal just because it is first. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing that is, it has. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Modern Academic Analysis of Aristotle's Metaphysics

This academic summary of Aristotle's Metaphysics, from The Western Philosophy and Philosophers Encyclopedia 1991, is very useful.

Metaphysics is the name given by scholars to a treatise of Aristotle. Aristotle described the subject of his treatise in a number of different ways which he regarded as equivalent. He called it the study of the first principles of things. He said it was the science of existence in general, or of 'being as such', contrasting it in this respect with the various special sciences which each studied only one part or aspect of being. He described it also as the study of 'substance', a term which occupies a central position in the work of most of the great metaphysicians who came after him. Substance he declared to be what primarily existed, and was prior to all other things in respect not only of existence, but of explanation and of knowledge as well; that is to say, the explanation of anything else involved the idea of substance; knowledge of anything else involved knowledge of substance; and the existence of everything else depended on the existence of substance. Metaphysics, then, is regarded by Aristotle as a single, comprehensive study of what is fundamental to all existence, all knowledge and all explanation. It will at once be evident that different identifications of substance, i.e. of what has this fundamental character, will yield different systems of metaphysics.
The Physics and connected works contain discussion and analysis of such concepts as nature, change, chance, time, place, continuity, infinity, growth; proofs that movement is eternal and that there is an eternal Prime Mover; and much doctrine as to the actual constitution and workings of the universe.
The argument for a Prime Mover starts from Aristotle's conception of change and causation. There could not be an absolutely first (or last) change. For since change implies pre-existing matter (or potentiality) and a pre-existing efficient cause to impose form on the matter (to actualize the potentiality), there must have existed before a supposed first change something capable of being changed and something capable of causing change. But then to explain why these potentialities (for being changed and for causing change) were actualized at a certain time just priori to that time, that is, a change before the supposed first change. Change therefore, or movement, must be eternal.... This Prime Mover, eternal, changeless and containing no element of matter or unrealized potentiality, keeps the heavenly bodies moving and maintains the eternal life of the universe.... He recognized that theories must wait upon facts, and if at any future time they are ascertained, 'then credence must be given to the direct evidence of the senses more than to theories'.

The composite picture which these descriptions yield is not a very clear one. (1) Metaphysics is a comprehensive study of what is fundamental in the order of knowledge, explanation and existence; (2) it is the study of reality as opposed to mere appearance; (3) its subject is, or has been, what transcends experience; (4) it is, or ought to be, a study of the intellectual equipment and limitations of human beings; (5) its method is, or has been, a priori rather than empirical; (6) it proposes a revision of the set of ideas in terms of which we think about the world, a change in our conceptual scheme, a new way of talking.

It is certainly true that most of the great metaphysicians have proposed radically revised pictures of the world, bold, comprehensive and often startling; and that most of them have accorded a central place in the picture to some few key concepts, or to some specially favored type of entities given the title of 'substance'. It is also true that the choice of key concepts and entities, and the resultant picture of the world, have varied greatly from one metaphysician to another. Sometimes even 'substance' has been dethroned, e.g.. in favor of 'process'; and among candidates for the role of substance the choice has been wide. Besides God, the divine substance, who has a place in most systems, Descartes recognized two types of substance, matter and minds; Berkeley one only, minds or spirits; Leibniz a class of entities (monads) each of which, though non-spatial and non-temporal, was somehow a model of our entire universe. Spinoza recognized only one comprehensive substance, God or Nature, infinite and eternal, of which mind and matter were merely two aspects. Kant regarded substance as belonging to the world of our ordinary experience, yet set Reality itself, as totally unknowable, outside that world.

(Western Philosophy and Philosophers, 1991)

Positive Solution to Metaphysics One Space Exists and has the Properties of a Wave Medium

If One thing, Space, Exists, how can a second thing exist within the One thing Space that gives rise to Matter and its Motion?
As Aristotle importantly and profoundly says;

... there is some other cause of the change. And to seek for this is to seek for the second kind of principle, as we would say, that from which comes the beginning of the change. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
Unless the further factor is active, there will still be no movement. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
There must then be a principle of such a kind that its substance is activity. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

I feel quite sure that if Aristotle had known of Huygens' work on Wave-Motion, along with the work of Newton and Leibniz, (who all lived 2,200 years later in human history) then Aristotle would have solved the problem of how Matter exists in this Space of our Universe. Unfortunately no formal knowledge of Wave-Motion existed then, hence there was no obvious solution (as there now is.)
Thus he was confronted, along with all Philosophers, with the Problem of the One and the Many;

Now there are several ways in which the one and the many are in opposition. One of these lies in the fact that the one and the many are opposed as indivisible and divisible. What is either divided or divisible is accounted for as a kind of plurality, whereas what is indivisible or not divided is said to be a unity. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
Multiplicity cannot be derived from a necessarily single thing. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

The solution is to realize that Space is Moving, that it is the Motion of Space which is the second thing that can Exist within the One thing. This Motion is a Wave Motion so we are simply saying that Space is Vibrating, Space is a Wave Medium and has Waves flowing through it. (So we see that Aristotle's required 'Activity' is in fact a Wave-Activity.)
Thus we see how the second existent, Motion, exists within the One Fundamental Existent, Space.

If we now return to Aristotle, we also see how the Wave-Motion of Space is consistent with his Metaphysical Principles, we need simply make two additions to his sentence as underlined;

And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence (Space) and in the properties (Wave Medium/Motion) which, just as a thing that is, it has. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Which thus explains why:

The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

And thus we are now led to the Metaphysics of Space and Motion and the Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) in Space, and at last to a simple and elegant solution to the problem that the great Aristotle formalized so long ago. For Aristotle was largely correct, there is One Substance, Space, which Exists as a Wave-Medium (Aristotle's Prime Mover) and thus Space is Moving (Vibrating) due to this Wave-Motion.

Note: Space is exceedingly rigid and only allows a tiny displacement/motion, thus the velocity of waves is VERY fast (the velocity of light c) and the wavelength is very short (10^-12 meters) thus Space is vibrating at something like a hundred billion billion cycles/s.
As Einstein says;

The subtlety of the concept of space was enhanced by the discovery that there exist no completely rigid bodies. All bodies are elastically deformable. (Einstein)

Uniting Motion, Matter and Time back to Space

Motion must always have been in existence, and the same can be said for time itself, since it is not even possible for there to be an earlier and a later if time does not exist. Movement, then, is also continuous in the way in which time is - indeed time is either identical to movement or is some affection of it. (There is, however, only one continuous movement, namely spatial movement, and of this only circular rotation.) (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Aristotle was quite remarkable, and here he alludes to the fact that Time and Motion are intimately interconnected, that Time did not exist as something in itself but was caused by the Motion of Matter. This is a major discovery for it takes us from the current Metaphysics of Space and Time to the Metaphysics of Space and Motion and thus the Wave Structure of Matter.
Likewise it then enables us to see the errors of both Physics (Einstein's Four Dimensional Space-Time Continuum) and Philosophy (Kant's Space, Time and Causation as a priori).

But now we must ask what is this connection between Motion and Matter (how is it that we can sense the Motion of Matter in Space?). If Matter is something different to Motion then what is the connection between Motion and Matter?
As Aristotle says;

... there being two causes of which we have defined in the Physics, they seem to have a glimpse of them, that of matter and that from which the motion comes, indistinctly though, and in no way clearly. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Aristotle was aware that we sense the Motion of Matter in Space, but he did not understand the connection between Matter and Motion. Only now can we demonstrate that Matter is a particular Form (Shape) of (Wave) Motion, a Spherical Standing Wave Motion of Space, thus we really sense the Motion of Motion in Space, thereby uniting Matter with Motion (and Time) thus solving the separation between these three previously distinct things.
This is further consistent when we consider electricity and the Motion of electrons (actually the motion of the Wave-Centers of Spherical Standing Waves) for we all know that electrical energy can be converted to Motion energy by an electric motor (and vice versa). We now see how electricity is connected to Motion, for the electrons themselves are a form of Motion, the Spherical Standing Wave Motion of Space.
Though it is more complex, this is also true of our minds and how by thinking we can move matter (e.g. my mind causing my fingers to move to type these letters) because mind is also caused by (and is nothing more than) the relative (wave) motions of matter which is ultimately the relative motions of Space.
As Aristotle profoundly says;

..about its coming into being and its doings and about all its alterations we think that we have knowledge when we know the source of its movement. (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

"When
forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence:
Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter.
... Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially
extended. In this way the concept 'empty space' loses its meaning.
... The particle can only appear as a limited region in space in which
the field strength or the energy density are particularly high. ...
The free, unhampered exchange of ideas and scientific conclusions
is necessary for the sound development of science, as it is in all spheres
of cultural life. ... We must not conceal from ourselves that
no improvement in the present depressing situation is possible without
a severe struggle; for the handful of those who are really determined
to do something is minute in comparison with the mass of the lukewarm
and the misguided. ...Humanity is going to need a substantially new way of thinking
if it is to survive!" (Albert Einstein)

This is the profound new way of thinking that Einstein
realised, that we exist as spatially extended structures of the universe
- the discrete and separate body an illusion. This simply confirms the
intuitions of the ancient
philosophers and mystics.

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